1. Sister Zeph, birth name Riffat Arif, is a Pakistani teacher, women’s activist and philanthropist.
2. Born in Gujranwala, Pakistan
3. She was a leader at school and had plans of becoming a lawyer. When she was thirteen her first article on Women’s Rights appeared in Pakistan’s leading newspaper the Daily Jang.
4. She left school when in grade seven and taught herself at home, finally passing the tenth grade Board examination. It was around this time that she started teaching other girls. She distributed flyers among her neighbours announcing free education for girls.
5. In 2006 gunmen attacked Sister Zeph’s home for teaching the girls, so she had to leave the village with her family, returning after six months and this time decided to never leave her students alone.
6. She won the Lynn Syms Prize in 2014, which honours her as a grassroots leader. The award enabled Sister Zeph to expand her school and include more girls. She expanded the infrastructure to accommodate 200 girl students, and has hired more teachers. Her program now offers such diverse classes as computers, beautician, and martial arts for girls.
7. Currently she has 26 employees in her organization the ZWEE Foundation, (the Zephaniah Free Education & Women’s Empowerment Foundation whose mission is to raise the status of women through education and empowerment) all of them her former students who are now highly educated. Sister Zeph has devoted her life to the cause and says she “will keep working to educate the children of the world as long as I am alive.”
8. For her work and dedication to uplifting the most disadvantaged communities, she has been awarded the Outstanding Performance award by Eternal Life Ministry of Pakistan International, and Bioneers Change Makers Award. The film Flight of the Falcons was produced to emphasize her life and work by Channel News Asia Singapore.
9. The film won a gold medal from the New York Film Festival in 2016, She was awarded a Gold medal as a Book of Humanity from kar-E-Khair Pakistan in 2021 and an Excellent performance award from Victory Church of Pakistan in 2021, plus a host of other global awards.
10. She won the Global Teacher Prize in 2023, awarded Nov 8, 2023 honouring her achievements.
Read also:Pakistani education activist Sister Zeph wins 2023 global teacher prize
